It took over a year of hearings for Americans to support Nixon’s removal

On the 40th anniversary of President Gerald Ford’s pardon of Richard Nixon, Pew Research published an interesting analysis of public opinion at the time on Watergate.

As the chart shows, Americans quickly soured on Nixon. But it took over a year for a majority to favor Nixon’s removal from office.

Even at the time of Nixon’s resignation, there was solid but not overwhelming support for such a step, at 57%. It took the House Judiciary Committee’s recommendation of impeachment and a Supreme Court ruling for the surrender of audio tapes for the public to favor Nixon leave office.

Still, the public did not favor the move by Ford to pardon Nixon, which contributed to the former’s loss in 1976 to Jimmy Carter.